


Thomas Dawes High School

by dazedquasars



Category: Half Life Trilogy - Sally Green
Genre: F/M, Fain AU, High School AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-15 02:39:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7202951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dazedquasars/pseuds/dazedquasars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nathan hates school. It's not fun. A-levels are terrible and reading is terrible and being stuck in the same ugly building for 6 hours a day is so immensely terrible. The only things that make it better are seeing his girlfriend Annalise, and the new stupidly handsome French exchange student</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

There was an awful lot that Nathan didn’t like.  
Jessica for one thing. Nathan really didn’t like Jessica. Or reading for another. The solid effort it would take him to get through a sentence would give him a migraine to last a week. Other things he didn’t like included rain, and small spaces, and reading, and people who were patronising, as well as mobile phones, big cities, Jessica again, A-levels and bugs. It was a long list. But possibly at the top of that list, was his very least favourite place, Thomas Dawes High School.  
There were very few good things about it. At least he got to see his girlfriend Annalise. In fact it was the only time he got to see her, due to her overly strict catholic parents who’d probably faint at the sight of Nathan. With his grubby fingernails full of dirt, and his paint splattered jeans and especially his ear piercing, Nathan wasn’t exactly suitable boyfriend material. There were also his art lessons, which, if he was lucky, would sometimes be a double. That could be enjoyable, he supposed, but he’d far rather be doing art at home, of his own free will. Nathan thought for a moment more. That appeared to be the end of his list. There wasn’t much else that Nathan could think of that he would consider a good thing – the only possible exception being the new French exchange student who was currently sat two spaces away from him- and was infuriatingly gorgeous.

Gabriel wasn’t Nathan’s French exchange. Nathan didn’t even know whose French exchange he was. All that he knew was that Gabriel was stupidly pretty, and Nathan liked to look at pretty people. A lot. Maybe it was an artist thing- he supposed he “appreciated natural beauty”. Like Annalise for example. She often caught him staring at her and teased him about it, but he knew that it made her smile.

Annalise. His wonderful girlfriend, who he supposedly loved and enjoyed being with. That Annalise. He bit his lip. Maybe he wouldn’t have felt guilty about checking Gabriel out if he was still happy with Annalise, but- well that was just it. But. Nathan couldn’t describe it, but things felt suddenly faded, like his life was an old photo that had been left out in the sun for too long. Then here comes a wonderful, charming, happy boy, lighting up the school with his loud laugh and his teasing grin, and all Nathan longed for was colour.

He sighed and checked the clock. Nathan was currently in politics (also pretty high on the ‘don’t like list’) and there was still 40 minutes of the lesson. He had no idea what they were supposed to be doing, but everyone else was reading the textbook in silence. He flipped his book open but every time he tried to read the page the words swam in front of his eyes until he got a headache. He checked the clock again. 38 minutes. Fuck it, he was failing anyway. Nathan gave up and started carelessly doodling in the back of his book.

As he made a few sketchy lines, he let his mind, and pencil wander. Without much effort, the lines had taken the shape of a face. He often drew Annalise, but not this time - the jaw was too sharp. As the drawing became more detailed Nathan realised that it bore a striking resemblance to a certain French Exchange student who sat only two spaces to the right of him. Nathan quickly looked over at Gabriel and was surprised to catch his eye. Gabriel gave him a slight smile but all Nathan could do was stare. There was something about him that was so perfect- almost too perfect to be real. He could be a model- or possibly a Greek god. Gabriel’s smile faded slightly and he turned back to his work to continue writing. Nathan looked back at his blank page, then up at the clock again. 32 minutes. It was going to be a long day.

Two dreary, painful hours later, and it was finally lunch. Nathan was sat outside on a bench with Annalise and her friends in the relative sunshine of Yorkshire, twirling her soft blonde hair in his fingers. He wasn’t quite sure what the conversation was about. Uni open days? A geography trip maybe? He never had a group of friends before Annalise and well, he still didn't, not really. He wasn't exactly the friendly type and Annalise’s friends barely acknowledged his presence. That was ok with Nathan though- it was very much mutual. He only sat with them to be with Annalise.

"You okay?" Annalise smiled at him warmly. Nathan nodded distractedly and her smile dropped slightly. He looked away and she turned back to the conversation.

On the other side of the courtyard that they were sat in, Nathan could see a group of people from his art class. He'd always liked them- unlike most people, they were actually nice to him. If he were to join a group of friends, it would be that one- but the most he ever said to any of them was "can you pass that charcoal". Yet within only a week and a half, sat in the middle of the group laughing his head off was Gabriel. Nathan watched as Gabriel started to tell the group a story, his long, slender hands gesticulating wildly and a charming smile lighting up his features. Nathan could tell that the entire group was enraptured. And well, so was he.

Nathan was brought back to reality with the harsh sound of the bell. He checked his timetable distractedly as the others all got up and left for English noisily. Stuffing it back into his bag he looked up to see Annalise glaring down at him.

“Why have you been ignoring me?” She crossed her arms and looked at him in such a haughty Annalise way that it almost made him smile. Almost.

“I haven’t.” He replied, grabbing his bag and standing up.

“You barely even look at me anymore- You aren’t even looking at me now!” Nathan put his bag down and stared at her pointedly.

“Don’t look at me like that! God, you’re so patronising! Don’t you think I’ve noticed how you barely speak to my friends? How you barely speak to me?” Nathan didn’t know what to say. He was surprised by the fierceness in Annalise’s voice. This was clearly something that had been bothering her for a while. He struggled for something to say. 

“You just don’t seem to care anymore” Annnalise sounded resigned. Nathan was at a loss for words- she sounded tired, but there was soft hurt creeping into her voice.

“Annalise, I-“ but he faltered. He had no idea how to make this better.

“Nathan, this isn’t normal. In a normal relationship a couple talks to each other- they actually enjoy being with each other!”  
Nathan stared blankly. He had expected that to hurt, but honestly, he couldn’t remember the last time he had longed to be with Annalise, the last time that he had just enjoyed her presence. When was the last time he’d had a normal, pleasant conversation with her? Everything was just... faded. Nathan was surprised to see that Annalise had tears running down her cheeks. He wanted to say something but there was nothing to say, and no way of saying it.

“Is- is there someone else?” Annalise looked up at him with shining blue eyes and Nathan felt horrifically guilty to find Gabriel’s face jumping into his mind, which was absurd- they had never even had a conversation, let alone anything worth breaking up with his girlfriend over. He tried to reply but something on his faced must have given him away, because before he could do anything, Annalise sobbed loudly and ran off, her long hair trailing behind her, leaving behind a very confused Nathan lost in his thoughts. He had no idea how to feel.

After a beat Nathan suddenly realised how cold and empty the courtyard was. Trying not to think about what just happened he picked up his bag and walked quickly to the art block.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first fic i've ever posted so!! ahhh!! The next chapter should be up soon as my exams are almost over- and there will be actual Nabriel interraction next time which is exciting! So yes pls let me know what you think in the comments, or don't if you cba


	2. Chapter 2

Nathan arrived to the classroom ten minutes late. He raised his hand in apology to his teacher, but he knew she wouldn’t care. He was pretty sure she hated this school more than he did. He slowly weaved his way through the tables and students, heading towards his seat. Without looking where he was going, he swung his bag off his shoulders to grab his watercolours and nearly slammed straight into- oh fucking hell.

“Whoa, sorry!” Gabriel’s lilting accent was gorgeous. It was really rather distracting. Nathan thought he could hear another accent in there- Swiss maybe? There was just something about it that made Nathan want to listen to it for hours on end.

“... Are you okay?” Gabriel asked uncertainly after a few seconds. Nathan realised that he had just been standing there staring at him.

“Uhh, yeah, sorry. I’m a bit distracted.” Gabriel laughed at that.

“Don’t worry- I’m unbelievably clumsy, it happens to me all the time” Nathan took in the graceful way that Gabriel held himself, and somehow doubted that.

“Yeah. Sorry.” Desperate for the mortifying ordeal to be over, Nathan went to sit down, but was rather irritated (and very slightly pleased) to find Gabriel follow him and sit down in the seat next to him, still chatting.

“I’m Gabriel by the way. I’m not actually studying art but I have a free and since I don’t really know anyone I thought I’d follow Rose to her lesson- I’m her French exchange and..” Nathan glanced over at Rose as Gabriel continued to chatter away. She caught his eye and gave him a huge shit eating grin as she tossed her long dark hair over her shoulder. Nathan looked away again quickly. 

“And I’m studying English Literature, Politics, French and History, but I don’t know if I will be able to complete my A-levels, because I’m going to be leaving for France in 8 months. It’s an unusually long trip, but it’s good for learning English properly I think...” Nathan zoned out while Gabriel kept talking and started to draw. After a few minutes Gabriel stopped babbling and started to ask Nathan questions.

“So what subjects are you studying?” Gabriel asked with a smile. Gabriel asked everything with a smile.

“Shitty ones,” Nathan replied without looking up. Gabriel laughed loudly.

“You English are so pessimistic!” he laughed.

“It’s hard to be optimistic when you’re stuck in hell,” Nathan replied as he sketched casually. Gabriel laughed again.

“You know, you’re cute when you’re scowling.” Nathan felt his heart skip and kept his head down as his face grew hot. He heard Rose giggle. “Which appears to be all the time,” Gabriel continued. Nathan could hear the smile in his voice. The prick.

“At least scowling is better than being an annoying constantly smiling asshole,” Nathan fired back, looking up this time. Gabriel laughed again.

“But it’s more fun for me being an annoying constantly smiling prick,” He grinned.

Nathan rolled his eyes pointedly and resumed sketching. After a moment he vaguely sensed Gabriel turn away and start a conversation with Rose. He tried to ignore them both, but he felt a strange mixture of relief and disappointment. He continued to draw.

Nathan was woken from his trance by the bell. Rose and Gabriel were still chatting as the class began to leave the room noisily. He looked at his unfinished work and sighed, but began to pack up.

“Nathan, have you done the portrait coursework yet?” Rose looked over at him as she put her   
sketchbook into her bag.

“Fuck- I completely forgot! When’s the deadline?”

“Tomorrow’s lesson I think? It took me ages to find someone to paint” Nathan’s heart sank. Art was the only subject he was good in, and if he got a U in any of the coursework- it just wasn’t an option.

“Rose could I paint you? It’ll take me an hour, tops, I swear-“ 

Rose swung her bag onto her shoulders.

“I can’t, I have music revision. Sorry.” Nathan swore. If there was one thing his teacher hated more than the school, it was children. There was no way she’d extend the deadline.

“I could do it” Nathan was surprised to look around and find that Gabriel was still stood next to Rose “I mean, if you want.”  
Nathan looked at Rose, who was giggling again.

“Uh, yeah- if you don’t mind. That would be great.”

Gabriel Grinned.  
“Not at all! I have to wait for Rose anyway, and this will be more interesting than just sitting in the library.” Nathan nodded, unsure about what to say.

“Ok, well I’ll see you guys later! Good luck Nathan!” Rose giggled, and with a wink, she left.

There was an uneasy silence as Nathan looked at Gabriel.

“So where do you need me to sit?” Gabriel asked brightly.

“Um, next to me is fine” Gabriel smiled as he slid into the old, paint splattered chair next to Nathan.

“Do I have to be perfectly still, or...?” He trailed off.

“No, it’s ok.” Nathan looked at him and started to sketch the long face shape. He tried to ignore the fact that he’d already done this and tried to focus on what he was drawing.

“I wish I could draw y’know. All your work is so beautiful” Gabriel remarked, breaking the silence of the empty classroom. Nathan smiled slightly at the compliment. 

“Practice makes perfect. The more you worked on it, the better you’d get.” He replied distractedly, as she started to outline the nose.

“No, if I practiced what I can draw all I’d end up with is perfect stick men” Nathan laughed at that and Gabriel smiled.

“Look at me a second?” Nathan turned to Gabriel, who obeyed, and studied his eyes. They were stunning. The deep brown seemed to sparkle with amusement as he blinked slowly. Nathan moved closer to get a better look and felt his gaze shift slowly down the thin nose to Gabriel’s lips. He looked back up into Gabriel’s beautiful upturned eyes again and before he could stop himself, he was leaning in further, so that his lips were touching Gabriel’s and they were kissing and he could feel his hand move up to touch Gabriel’s long hair, and they were still kissing and Gabriel’s warm body was so close to his own and he wanted to be even closer as their mouths crashed together-

And without warning, Gabriel was pulling away sharply.

“I-“ Nathan felt sick. He had assumed that Gabriel had been flirting, but it looked like he had been wrong. He shrank back into himself. “Sorry,” he mumbled, avoiding Gabriel’s eye.

“Nathan, you have a girlfriend,” Gabriel’s voice sounded so sad and sincere that Nathan was taken aback. He looked up at Gabriel again. It didn’t look like he had been wrong. 

“No- we kind of broke up. Well, sort of, I’m not really sure what-“ He realised how awful he must look right now and took a deep breath.

“We’re over Gabriel.”

Gabriel smiled sadly.   
“We shouldn’t do this. Not yet.” He gave Nathan a final, soft smile, picked up his bag and left without looking back.

Nathan stared at the empty doorway.

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaah this is very exciting! Also Rose is my sweet child and I love her and she totally wants Nabriel together as much as i do. Next chapter should be up soon, but it needs a lot of work lmao  
> Lemme know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

After spending hours distractedly trying to draw Gabriel from memory and failing, Nathan finally gave up. Losing what little was left of his sanity was not worth the grade- he could always just give in an old sketch of Gran. What he really needed now, was sleep.

His brain, however, had other ideas. He spent hours restlessly replaying what had happened over and over again. Of course he felt guilty-he would hate to hurt Annalise- but that kiss was incredible. He couldn’t stop thinking about it-the feeling of his hand in Gabriel’s soft hair, the taste of his lips, the sound of his heartbeat drumming in his ears- but also the look on Gabriel’s face when he drew away, the feeling of emptiness when he left. Nathan wanted to kick himself. Gabriel was so lovely- Melt your heart and make your brain   
dribble out of your ears lovely- of course he would want to make sure Annalise and Nathan were over. 

He checked the clock. 4:18 am. And his first lesson tomorrow-well, today- was politics. If he didn’t die of exhaustion by then he’d probably die of humiliation when he saw Gabriel. Or from his beauty, who knows. Despite the awkwardness of the situation, Nathan almost couldn’t wait to see Gabriel again. He wanted to kiss him again, to touch him... 

Nathan wanted to slap himself. He’d only just met the guy and he was already creepily obsessing over him. Fucking hell, for all he knew, he was still dating Annalise! Nathan sighed, put a pillow over his head and tried to get some sleep. He could deal with everything in the morning.

Except now it was the morning. 7:13, and Gran was yelling at him to get up. He groaned and attempted to heave his heavy body out of the warm bed into the cold autumn morning. He tottered unsteadily down the stairs, still half asleep, and stared blearily ahead as he waited for the toaster to pop. Gran bustled about him keeping up a constant chatter as he struggled to keep his eyes open. Nathan just grunted and nodded at every seemingly appropriate pause until his toast was ready. When it popped he shoved it in his mouth and was ready to head back up to his bedroom, when there was a knock on the door.

For a second, Nathan just stared at the door. It took his brain several moments to register that there had been a noise at all, let alone- 

Another knock.

“Nathan, get the door!” Gran yelled from the sink in the kitchen. Nathan stood there for a few more moments before his brain caught up and yanked the door open.

“Hi.”

Nathan stared at Annalise. He had completely forgotten about the day before, about their argument, about Gabriel- Gabriel.

“I came to apologise.” Nathan continued to stare blankly at her. His mind was foggy with sleep. He had no idea what to say to her, no idea where to begin.

“Can- can I come in?” Annalise’s eyes pleaded for forgiveness. Nathan looked at Gran in the kitchen. She looked like she was focused on the washing up, but he knew from experience that she was eavesdropping.

“Let’s talk out here.” He shut the door behind him and led her to the bench on their porch, suddenly very aware that he was still wearing his old pyjamas and had a piece of soggy toast in his hand. What a perfect cherry to top this brilliant situation.

Annalise took a deep breath as they sat down.  
“I wanted to say I’m sorry. For everything. I know that you don’t like sharing or talking, really ever, and I was just being ridiculous and overanalysing things and I know that there’s no one else and I was reading too much into things and I’m so sorry Nathan, I’m sorry,” she blurted out. It sounded rehearsed.

The look on her face only made Nathan feel worse as he thought about the kiss, of how he betrayed her. He felt sick. He wanted to say something but the words were sticking in his throat.

“I’m sorry,” Annalise whispered, a tear rolling down her cheek.

Nathan inhaled through his nose and looked down.

“You were right,” he said very quietly. Annalise looked up sharply but Nathan couldn’t meet her gaze. He focused on his hands in his lap. They felt odd- strangely heavy.

“I was right?” Annalise repeated slowly, as if still trying to process the words “So there’s-“ Her voice broke, and Nathan’s heart broke with it. He never wanted to hurt Annalise, but it would hurt a lot worse if he did this later rather than sooner.

“There’s someone else.” He was still staring at his hands. 

Annalise gave a bitter laugh.

“So just like that, you don’t love me anymore,” Her voice was harsh and it surprised Nathan- he’d never seen her acting this coldly- especially not towards him.

“No I just-“

“Love her more,” Annalise finished. Nathan was speechless. He wanted to deny it- he had only just met Gabriel for god’s sake! But then he was reminded of the warmth of Gabriel’s lips, his incredibly soft hair falling onto Nathan’s face...

“Goodbye Nathan.” Annalise stood and Nathan looked up for the first time. He didn’t want it to end like this, but he needed it to end. He struggled to find the words to make it better, but there were none.

“Annalise-“ 

She whipped around, her golden hair flying across her shoulders, tears rolling down her cheeks.

“No. You know what Nathan? I’m glad there’s someone else. I’m glad that this is over. Because it was becoming more and more obvious that we are not a good match. I’ll see you at school.” And with that she stalked away.

Nathan wasn’t quite sure what to do. What did you do after a break up? He supposed that people cried- but he wasn’t really the crying type. Perhaps he would have felt better, but no tears came. Instead, he leant back against the bench; eyes closed, and took in a shaky breath of cold morning air.

It did nothing to clear his mind of the fog of guilt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aahh sorry i took such a long time to add such a short chapter,,, i am terrible  
> in other news i am 100% obsessed with the raven cycle and people should totes scream with me about it on tumblr (tineasum) <3


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